Flesh and Bone

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: November 5, 1993

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

57	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

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Marjorie Baumgarten

Flesh and Bone is far from a comfortable experience to witness, so if you like your films “over easy” this will not be to your liking. But if you like entertainment that cuts to the marrow, then Flesh and Bone is something to see. Read full review

Roger Ebert

The past traps the present, fate smothers spontaneity, and all of the dialog sounds like Dialog - not what people would say, but what characters would say. The film is depressing for some of the right reasons, and all of the wrong ones. Read full review

Anthony Lane

Although the plot comes to rely on a particularly outlandish series of coincidences, it’s a credit to Kloves’s skill that you can almost put this out of your mind and enjoy his long, suspended scenes, brimming with lust or the need to lash out. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Flesh and Bone is all suspenseful buildup without shoot-outs, chases, and explosions, and its conclusion doesn't demand a neatly-packaged resolution. More importantly, it's one of the few successful '40s-type noir thrillers to grace the big screen in recent years. Read full review

Desson Thomson

If you go to this, anticipate neither an endearing Quaid-Ryan vehicle nor a fully satisfying art film. By trying to satisfy opposing demands, Kloves misses the spirit of both and is left only with flesh and bone. Read full review

Rita Kempley

Kloves has taken us on one more ride down this same old Texas highway, with its cheap motels and gloomy cowboys. Ain't much more to it than that. Read full review

Janet Maslin

Most of what keeps Flesh and Bone so gripping is the ways in which the characters themselves evolve. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The performances are sound, but for much of the time the film seems undecided whether it's a mystery, a romance, a social document or an art movie. And that indecision is fatal, stifling the life out of what might have been an effective little thriller. Read full review

Jay Carr

Few directors lavish as much tenderness upon life's bruised survivors as Kloves does, and many a more prominent director has failed to find in the dust-choked West Texas plains the wistfulness with which Quaid and Ryan fill their most solid and shtick-free work yet. [05 Nov 1993, p.42]

EmpireIan Nathan

Hardly a barrel of laughs then, but this slowburn tale sears its way onto the synapses and then flat refuses to budge. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

In Baker Boys, Kloves crafted a melancholy vision laced with ripe possibilities for pleasure and love. But the movie was (inexplicably, to me) a commercial disappointment, and Kloves, perhaps as a delayed response, has returned with a vision drained of joy, freedom, excitement. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

This film turns out to revolve around a whole series of whopper coincidences, even one of which would be difficult to swallow. Not even a film this accomplished can work up enough suspension of disbelief to enable audiences to ingest them all, and just making the attempt is painful. [05 Nov 1993, p.F1]

Jeff Shannon

Although his plot is subtly contrived, Kloves stays true to his characters by daring to evolve Flesh and Bone into a genuine tragedy (i.e. a downer) resembling the brooding early-1970s dramas that defied commercial convention. [05 Nov 1993, p.D3]

Michael Wilmington

The acting is terrific, understated and pungent, especially Quaid's and Ryan's performances. [05 Nov 1993, p.I]

Rick Groen

Thematically, structurally, narratively (hell, pick your adverb), this effort goes way past thin - Flesh And Bone is anorexic. [05 Nov 1993]

Jackie Potts

Spooky and intricately detailed. [10 Nov 1993, p.E1]

Jay Boyar

The actors are so impressed by the seriousness of their dialogue that they respectfully wait a minute or so after each line is spoken before speaking the next one. Remove the pauses and the movie would run about 20 minutes. [12 Nov 1993, p.20]

Kristi Turnquist

As a picturesque mood piece, Flesh and Bone is haunting and effective. As a movie, though, it doesn't quite get to where it wants to go. [05 Nov 1993, p.AE17]

William Arnold

Dennis Quaid gives what may be his best performance in the stylish thriller Flesh and Bone, but the movie around him is so cold, quirky and ploddingly predictable that it's hard to recommend. [05 Nov 1993]

Staff (Not Credited)

On the whole, Flesh and Bone is effectively clean and mean. [05 Nov 1993, p.10E]

Susan Wloszczyna

Quaid's return to form is worth cheering. He helps make Flesh a watchable depressant. [05 Nov 1993, p.4D]